Simple Pages on My Mind
by Lamia of the Dark
Summary: Oneshot. Staying up until the early hours of the morning lost in the pages of a book... It's something only another "reader" can understand. Written for HP Slash Luv for the 2015 Gift-Giving Extravaganza.


**DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling.**

~ Simple Pages on My Mind ~

Remus was alone in the common room, up far past the time he should have been in bed, yet unable to peel his eyes away from the novel he was reading. He knew the other Marauders would poke fun at him for reading for pleasure after all the reading they had to do for classes, but there was a _difference_ between textbooks and stories which his friends did not seem to appreciate. It wasn't their fault they were more physically active where he was more inclined toward mental pursuits... They didn't understand the wonder of being absorbed by a good story, the _need_ to sometimes get lost in another world, to disappear into a fictional land leave your own life behind for a while...

Of course not. His friends were privileged, spoiled... they hadn't had the kind of childhood hardship that he'd had. They didn't have to deal with the pain and the stigma of turning into a moon-crazed monster once a month since the age of five. Even if they had been interested in stories - which they _weren't_ - James, Sirius, even Peter were not _readers,_ so of course they could never understand Remus's almost-obsessive need to have his face in a book, to have some fantastical tale taking up the extra thought-space in his brain, to have other worlds waiting for him within the confines of his own gray matter.

And so, even though it was very late at night, Remus could not bring himself to put the book down. He was two thirds of the way through the story now and he just couldn't stop reading it, not _now,_ couldn't bring himself to just close the book at this point in the narrative, not when he was dying to know how it all turned out in the end.

He was so absorbed in his book that he didn't notice when someone else entered the Gryffindor common room. He was so focused upon the words he was reading that although his ears picked up the other person's footsteps and the creak of them settling into one of the room's chairs, his mind dismissed the sounds as unimportant white noise before he could consciously process them. And so he remained unaware that he was no longer alone as he continued the last leg of his long strange journey through this particular fantasy world.

Remus was very near the end of the novel, only a few pages away - and the sun was not quite beginning to show through the curtains by the time he reached this point - when he was suddenly drawn out of his fantasy world cocoon by the loud snap of someone slamming a hardcover book shut somewhere quite nearby. He looked up, startled, and saw Lily Evans sitting in the chair across from him, holding a thick leather-bound tome in one hand as she yawned and stretched.

She stood, tucking the book under her arm and started off toward the stairs - presumably to go up to the girls' dorm - but stopped short when she caught him looking at her and blushed.

Coughing to cover her awkwardness, Lily asked, "So, um... what are you reading?"

Remus, who was more socially awkward than having a few close friends could cure, held up his book in response to her question so that she could see the cover.

"_The Call of Cthulhu_?" Lily asked in surprise. "I wouldn't have pegged you for a science fiction aficionado, Lupin."

Remus chuckled awkwardly. "Well, I've already re-read the Lord of the Rings series twice in the past two years so I figured it was time to try out something new."

"Is it any good?" she asked curiously. "The Cthulhu book, I mean," she added, apparently feeling the need to clarify.

"It's interesting," he answered carefully. Although he was hesitant to admit the next part, he felt that perhaps another reader would understand... if in fact she had been reading a novel or something and not studying for classes. (He still had no idea what book Lily was holding.) "I won't know how I really feel about it until after I finish the book."

"Oh," Lily said. Was that disappointment he heard in her voice? "I'm sorry. I'll leave you to it then." She turned to leave, pausing for a second time to throw back over her shoulder, "Goodnight, Lupin. And let me know later whether you liked that book or not. It's one I've been meaning to read."

He was so surprised by this pronouncement that she was already out of sight and halfway up the stairs before he called out, "Night, Evans."

It took him a moment to find his place on the page again and become re-immersed in the world of the story and all too soon it was over. It took him a few long moments of turning it over in his mind before he decided that yes, he did indeed like the book.

~end~


End file.
